Mr. Drew Harris:

I have not come to a final conclusion on that. I certainly do not feel any particular pressure to close stations. I should retain the stations that I have and then examine what is going on in terms of the demand they are meeting and the reassurance they are providing as well. People take comfort from having a Garda station in their location and there is no doubt about that but I have to look towards where the new demands are and where the issues are in respect of which the intervention of the Garda will make a difference. It also comes down to our resources and how we best use them. I refer to my earlier comments on the demand that we are dealing with, how that demand is changing and how we are best placed to meet it. It is not necessarily the case that building new stations and reopening stations is the way to go forward. We want to be sure that our service is responsive, that people feel that it is approachable and that it is providing a local service. That is undoubtedly true but at the same time stations are expensive and they draw on the public purse a lot. I could not make any promises here today that there will be a wholesale reopening of stations because it depends on the need and the demand that it is filling as opposed to just making a promise that we will reopen stations.